It appears of the two possible options ahead of them, recast Kang or cut Kang from the MCU, Marvel may be leaning toward the former.
This comes in the wake of actor Jonathan Majors’ assault conviction, where he is still awaiting sentencing, but almost immediately after the verdict Disney finally dropped him, and now the future of the Big Bad for this phase of the MCU has been uncertain. Now, a rumored replacement actor is being circulated online thanks to a report from big-time insider Daniel Richtman, with a solid track record in the field.
The actor in question being considered as a possible pick is Coleman Domingo, who has a long, long-running role in the recently ended Fear the Walking Dead, and even if that show went way off the rails, he has always been one of the only good parts of it. Domingo also has starred in Euphoria, which he won an Emmy for, but above that, this is definitely his year.
In 2023, Domingo is in potential Oscar consideration for both his role as Bayard Rustin in Rustin, which would be for lead actor, and then potentially as Albert “Mister” Johnson in The Color Purple, as a supporting actor.
Domingo may not be a household name, but almost everyone who knows his work are hearing this Kang rumor and going “oh yeah, he’d be a great pick.” Domingo is 54, a full 20 years older than the 34 year-old Jonathan Majors whose career was meteoric until the criminal charges and conviction for assaulting his ex-girlfriend in March of 2023. But the thing about recasting Kang is that…it should be the easiest role to recast in the MCU, given that the entire premise of the character are that there are a million different versions of Kang, and as the MCU has established, alternative universe versions of characters do not all look the same. Hence the term “variants.” Variant Loki was a child, a woman and an alligator, so why can’t variant Kang be Coleman Domingo?
While I maintain the Kang storyline has run its course and could be ended with Loki season 2, I am also not opposed to Domingo taking over the role. In some ways the part now feels a bit radioactive, as actors like John Boyega have expressed no interest in taking it when the question was posed to them by fans. But Domingo is in a stage in his career where he can A) kind of do whatever he wants and B) this would also elevate his profile to the global stage, even past what his potential Oscar nominations might do. Domingo would also be one of the first openly gay actors to have a role this big within the MCU.
Again, this is far from a sure thing and Marvel is still sorting all this out. But this is one report I hope would actually turn out to be true, if Marvel is indeed stuck with Kang for the long haul.
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